Selecting Research Topics

The TPA team has recently completed work on a study looking at the evidence to support the proposition that the global supply of ‘conventional oil’ will be constrained by physical depletion before 2030.

Previous reports have focused on intermittent energy supply, investment in electricity generation, transport carbon emissions and the Rebound Effect.
 

Topic Selection Criteria

Prospective questions are open to input from stakeholders, through both workshops and ad-hoc consultation.

The TPA management team and UKERC Research Director, in consultation with the TPA Advisory Group, will select questions according to the following criteria:

• Does the question reflect the concerns of users?
• Is the question relevant to current energy policy debate and/or the objectives of the UKERC and UK energy policy?
• Are there important areas of conflict or confusion that a TPA assessment could help overcome?
• Can the question be made sufficiently concise as to allow it to be addressed within the timeframe and resource limits of the TPA?
• Is the question amenable to a synthesis assessment based on existing evidence? For example, is the question sufficiently tightly defined? Is an adequate evidence base both available and accessible? 
   

October 2009 Stakeholder Workshop

The TPA team held a stakeholder workshop at Imperial College on 1st October 2009, to discuss potential new topics, and to assist with the identification of those topics which are best suited to the TPA approach (using the criteria described above).

The notes from the meeting can be found here. The keynote presentation from Adrian Gault can be found here. The presentation from Jim Skea can be found here, and the presentation from Rob Gross and Steve Sorrell here.